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Monthly Archives: September 2017

I know, this sounds like common sense, but how many times have you been told something, and it has not been carried through. For example, you ordered a birthday present and it was promised you would receive it in 2 days (1 day before the birthday), and then not received it for 4 days. Now you don’t have the gift to give because someone was not timely. This is a simple example but I as a business owner live by this rule. In fact, if I tell someone I will have their project to them by a certain time, I shoot for 24 hours before. Why do I do this? What happens if I plan to send it to them when it is due, but oops, my hard drive crashes? They don’t get the project on time-even though it was finished in advance, and it puts them behind. This does not help my integrity or reputation, and it will probably affect if the client will do business with me again, or not.

Now, all of us understand that acts of God can interfere with our work or we can make a mistake (after all, we are all human). It’s bound to happen sometime. So what do we do?

Rule 2 – Always be honest.

This is a hard rule to live by, because sometimes you are so ashamed of your mistake, you don’t want to admit your foolishness. Let me share a horrifying mistake I made that could have destroyed my business. I was creating an e-book for a client. I found beautiful pictures which I designed the cover with and added throughout the book. I sent the book to her and she was delighted. The day before she was to send it to her webmaster to get it added to her site, I happened to realize that the pictures were not royalty free, which means we did not have permission to use them. I could have pretended I didn’t know and let the book go on the market and hoped that no one said anything about the pictures and my client didn’t get in trouble. I didn’t do this. I embarrassingly relayed my mistake to my client as soon as I discovered it (who is by the way, still my client). Because I was honest, she was understanding. Now, do you think I charged her to fix this mistake? See the next rule.

Rule 3 – Always fix your mistakes immediately.

Do you charge for your mistakes to be fixed? Absolutely not! It is not your client/customers fault that there was a mistake! How did I fix my big mistake? I went and bought royalty free pictures (with my money). I then redid the whole book (on my own time). I stayed up late that night and got the book fixed and ready to go. My client did not have to pay out a dime for my mistake. I took full blame and then went the extra step to fix the mistake. This client has been with me for a year now, and continues to refer me to everyone she comes across. We have a wonderful relationship, that could have been ruined had I not followed Rule #2 and #3.

Now these are just 3 rules to help you along the way in your business. There are many more things we must do to build our integrity and reputation, but if you follow these 3 rules, you will not take those 20 steps backwards, but go 20 steps forward.

One thing that makes marketing your business for sale complicated is that it’s possible to sell your business without ever advertising it. There may be situations where a buyer is standing by, waiting to take on your business at a moment’s notice. There may even be a pre-arranged price and set of terms. In this particular situation, there is essentially no marketing whatsoever. Your business simply changes hands.

Even in cases where some amount of advertising or notice will be required, it’s often a good idea to limit the amount of advance public notice. This caution is good for two reason. First, early advance notice that your selling your business could provide a helpful heads up to your competitors. That’s probably something that you don’t want to do in terms of helping your customers and preserving the legacy of your business.

Advance notice of a sale by marketing your business could also have a demoralizing effect on your employees. They might become concerned about their own job security and begin looking elsewhere for employment. This could actually end up lowering the value of your business, especially if productivity or customer service begins to decline.

One way to avoid most of the stress that comes with marketing your business for sale is to sell your business through business brokers. Business brokers buy and sell businesses for a living, so they can bring quite a bit of experience to the deal. They may have a ready list of buyers who are interested in purchasing a business just like yours. Even if this is not the case, they will have knowledge of places where your business sale can be listed and marketed effectively.

Some business owners try to avoid the need for marketing their business by trying to sell their business to a family member. They believe that selling to a relative will be less stressful than negotiating with a stranger. While it’s true that the marketing phase might be simpler, most experts agree that negotiating a business sale with a family member is far more stressful than most people anticipate.

Marketing your business for sale normally includes the whole process of pricing your business for sale and publicizing its availability. As you might expect, the real key to successfully marketing your business for sale is to connect with the right person.

Another reason that some business sellers turn to business brokers for help is to save time. The most valuable place you can be during a business sale is where you’ve always been–running your business and making it as valuable as possible. Marketing your business for sale requires around-the-clock effort. It’s more than just advertising your business for sale. Documents will need to be prepared and released to potential buyers. At the same time, you’ll need to continue to maintain confidentiality.

Marketing your business for sale is more than just getting the word out. It is an entire process that includes pricing your business and creating an exit strategy for you. You could also include activities like interviewing potential buyers, negotiating with qualified buyers, and completing the sale.

If you’re thinking about marketing your business for sale on your own, without business brokers, it’s certainly not impossible. Other business owners have done this successfully. If you have the time and expertise to maintain the necessary documentation and negotiate the various financial planning and tax issues, you may find that you prefer to be personally involved in all parts of the process.

Ultimately, how you go about marketing your business for sale is your decision. Many sellers find that business brokers provide a competent hands-off service that usually ends with a successful sale and transition. Other sellers prefer to draw on their own experience and passion to communicate the value and worth of their business to potential buyers. You may find that marketing your business for sale is not as complicated or traumatic as some believe.

One of the best examples of a teenage business that grows into an adult business is that little girl who used to sell cookies around the neighborhood and grew up to be the proud owner of two successful bakeshops across town. From earning a few coins selling cookies each summer around the neighborhood, that little turned her business into something that brings about thousands of dollars in profit every year. The secret of her success is that at an early age, she was already exposed to the nitty-gritty of finding good suppliers of ingredients for her small business and had established a good relationship with these suppliers. Furthermore, when she was still a teenager and do not have any pressing needs to earn a living on her own, she had all the time to experiment in baking different types of cookies and pastries that she was able to come up with some really good recipes.

Advantages of Starting Young

There are many advantages of getting into business at a very young age. Teenage entrepreneurs learn their trade early and had more time to hone their business skills. After years of engaging in their teenage businesses, these young people develop a system of their own when it comes to handling their business affairs. These systems will then play a vital role when the teenager later on decide to pursue his or her teenage business and turn it into a full fledge adult business. According to studies, most young entrepreneurs used the skills that they learned early on to expand their business when they get older.

Another advantage of starting a business at an early age is that teenage entrepreneurs gain loyal customers over the years. It is not uncommon for people around the neighborhood to feel an affinity for the young entrepreneur thus they will not really think twice when it comes to supporting the younger entrepreneur. Since teenage entrepreneurs have already established rapport and good relationships with their clients, keeping these clients will not really be hard for them. In fact, some loyal clients will prove to be very useful when it comes to advertising the business expansion of the young entrepreneur. Note that a good word from a very satisfied customer will always bring in more business.